NBA accepts Clippers sale; Donald Sterling sues for damages

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2014, photo, then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left, shakes hands with former NBA players Bill Russell, right, and "Downtown" Freddie Brown as Omar Lee looks on during an NCAA college basketball game between Washington and Oregon State in Seattle. An individual with knowledge of negotiations to sell the Los Angeles Clippers said Shelly Sterling has reached an agreement to sell the team to Ballmer for $2 billion. The individual, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, told The Associated Press on Thursday, May 29, 2014, that Ballmer and the Sterling Family Trust now have a binding agreement. The deal now must be presented to the NBA. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

The NBA on Friday afternoon announced a settlement with Shelly Sterling and the Sterling Family Trust to allow the Los Angeles Clippers to be sold to Steve Ballmer. A vote of the league's Board of Governors will be needed to make the sale final.

In exchange, the NBA will end its attempt to terminate the Sterlings' ownership of the franchise.

But minutes before the NBA's statement on the matter, Donald Sterling sued the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver for damages in excess of $1 billion in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

In the complaint obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Sterling alleged the NBA committed antitrust violations, breached contracts and denied his constitutional rights.

After an audio recording of Sterling disparaging African-Americans became public in April, Silver banned Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million and started the process to end ownership of the team he purchased in 1981.

Sterling's lawsuit calls the punishments "draconian" and alleges they were based on an "illicit" recording.

Late Thursday, Shelly Sterling agreed to sell the Clippers to Ballmer for a record $2 billion. An attorney for Donald Sterling, however, disputed Thursday that a sale could proceed without his client's approval.

In Sterling's 32-page response to the NBA's charges, he claimed the recording was illegal and that he shouldn't be punished for a private conversation. Sterling's cover letter to the response hinted at litigation.

"Therefore, I have no alternative but to exercise my legal rights," he wrote.

Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, represented the owner in litigation with the NBA when he moved the Clippers from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1984. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement in 1987 in which the Clippers remained in Los Angeles in exchange for $5.7 million, its share of expansion revenue from four new teams added to the league.